Tag Archives: employment

NATO Vehicle I-D: Latvijas CVR(T) Scimitar, Samaritan, Spartan

Video September 12, 2022 Hutchins AAron

Believe it or not, little Republic of Latvia doesn’t have any main battle tanks. The closest thing it has is the M109A5Ö self propelled artillery gun, and the Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle-Tracked FV107 Scimitar recon/scout tank. Latvia also uses the CVR-T FV104 Samaritan ambulance, the FV103 Spartan personnel carrier and several other versions of the CRV-T.

This May 2014 Latvijas Armija video explains the different CVR-Ts in use:

Latvian Minister of Defense gets taken for a ride in a British made FV107 Scimitar. Michigan Army National Guard photo by Sergeant First Class Helen Miller, 28APR2016.

Latvian Defence Ministry photo, 18NOV2017.

Latvijas Armija video about deployment to NATO United Kingdom for a ‘friendly’ (wargame), May 2018:

Latvian Defence Ministry photo by Gatis Dieziņš, 08NOV2019.

Latvian Defence Ministry photo by Armīns Janiks, 13JAN2020.

During a NATO wargame, 13JAN2020. Latvian Defence Ministry photo by Armīns Janiks.

Latvijas Armija video showing FV107 Scimitars and FV103 Spartan personnel carriers in action, June 2020:

FV107 on public display, 21AUG2021. Latvian Defence Ministry photo by Gatis Dieziņš.

FV104 Samaritan. Latvian Defence Ministry photo by Gatis Dieziņš, 26OCT2021.

Latvia relies on other NATO countries to bring in the big Main Battle Tanks, in case of invasion. NATO Canada commands NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group in Latvia (which might explain Latvia’s use of British empire English, instead of U.S. English). The CRV-T series is a British empire made vehicle, designed and built in the United Kingdom during the undeclared Cold War. Latvia continues to receive upgraded versions of the CRV-T.

NATO Vehicle I-D: LATVISKI M109A5Ö (THE Ö IS FOR ÖSTERREICH)

Ukraine Crisis: NATO POLAND’S NEW U.S. ARMY TANK ACADEMY & MORE PROOF U.S. TAXPAYERS CONTROLLED BY FOREIGNERS!

Cold War & Beyond: M93 FOX NBCRSV

Idaho, U.S.

U.S. Wildfire 2022: C-130 MAFFS deployed, Idaho suffers most fires/acres burned in the U.S.!

Video September 10, 2022 Hutchins AAron

From the week ending 10SEP2022:

According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), based in Boise, Idaho leads the nation with 34 reported wildfires, as well as the most acreage burned.

10SEP2022, family moving onto their new property in Northern Idaho discover they are surrounded by wildfires:

09SEP2022, two suspected arsonists arrested:

09SEP2022, Bannock County 2 & 1/2 MILE FIRE, HISTORY REPEATS?

09SEP2022, Moose Fire burns more than 125-thousand acres, largest fire currently in the U.S., been burning since July:

On 09SEP2022, at the request of the NIFC, two Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) equipped C-130s were deployed to Boise Airport (Gowen Field) for fire fighting duties. One is a C-130H Hercules (upgraded with the eight bladed prop) from Nevada Air National Guard, the other is a C-130J Super Hercules from California Air National Guard. The last time C-130s went to Boise Airport was in April 2022, for yearly MAFFS training. The two MAFFS equipped C-130s will remain on-station until 08OCT2022, unless another NIFC request is issued.

09SEP2022, Four Corners Fire update:

09SEP2022, Blaine County’s Ross Fork Fire (not to be confused with last month’s Ross Fork Fire in Bannock County) still only 2% contained:

09SEP2022, Jerome County declares state of emergency as a result of a new fire:

08SEP2022, Rainbow Fire:

08SEP2022, air quality warnings issued:

08SEP2022, electrical power cut as mine operations are evacuated:

07SEP2022, Idaho Power (a for-profit utility company) now blames wildfires for causing power shortages in Idaho:

06SEP2022, Sagehen Fire borders Bingham and Caribou Counties:

04SEP2022, Limelight Fire destroys 26 low income homes:

Idaho, August 2022: What timing as Pocatello Airport’s U.S. Forest Service Air Tanker base is back online after extensive upgrades!

U.S. Wildfire 2021: IDAHO UPDATE, 15 AUGUST

FOR FIRST TIME, IDAHO MOBILIZES MILITIA (National Guard) FOR FIRE DUTY!

WYOMING & COLORADO ACTIVATES MAFFS, NEVADA’S MAFF MISSION EXTENDED!

U.S. Wildfire 2017:

C-130 aircraft from three National Guard units and a U.S. Air Force Reserve unit arrive on Gowen Field (Boise Airport), Idaho, 20APR2017. California Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Nieko Carzis.

IDAHO CONDUCTS MASSIVE MAFFS TRAINING, IN PREPS FOR HOT WILDFIRE SEASON!

Southeast Idaho Wildfire 2012:

A couple of Neptunes awaiting orders, on the tarmac at Pocatello Airport. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins, July 2012.

BUSY 30 MINUTES AT POCATELLO AIR TANKER BASE, AS FIRE FIGHTING AIRCRAFT FLY INTO ACTION

Idaho, U.S.

U.S. Wildfire 2022: 2 & 1/2 Mile Fire, history repeats?

September 9, 2022 Hutchins AAron

09 September 2022 (11:44-UTC-07 Tango 06) 18 Shahrivar 1401/12 Safar1444/14 Ji-You 4720

2 & 1/2 Mile Fire, as seen from my backyard in Chubbuck, Idaho.

The wildfire currently called Two and a Half Mile Fire is in an area of Bannock County, Idaho, that has a history of going up in smoke. Just last month, in the same area, north of Pocatello, on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Fort Hall Reservation land, was the Ross Fork Fire (not to be confused with a current wildfire of the same name in Blaine County).

Photo via BLM.

Today, a warning has been issued for those using the Interstate 15 highway, around the Fort Hall Exit between Pocatello and Blackfoot, firefighting efforts could result in highway traffic being halted of diverted. The Idaho Fire Information website ranks the fire as “extreme”, an evacuation order was issued to anybody living in the 2 1/2 Mile Road/East Ross Fork area.

The fire has burned at least 7-thousand acres since the afternoon of 08SEP2022. Fast winds during the night made the fire worse, it is zero percent contained. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a burn ban for federal reservations in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a Degraded Air Quality warning, and a burn ban for Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Caribou, Franklin, Power and Oneida Counties. The air quality warnings and burn bans are blamed on the numerous fires in the Pacific Northwest.

This is not the first time a wildfire blackened the hills around 2 1/2 Mile Road; 03JUL2013:

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins, 01July 2013.

2 1/2 MILE FIRE CONTAINMENT, MORE IDAHO FIRES EXPECTED, WARNS OFFICIALS.

June 2012:

Smoke seen from downtown Old Town Pocatello. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins, 28JUN2012.

POCATELLO CHARLOTTE FIRE STILL BURNING! 66 HOMES NOW DESTROYED!

U.S.

Drugs the American Way: Drugs packaged as explosives?

Video September 5, 2022 Hutchins AAron

Incomplete (tip-o-the iceberg, seriously this isn’t the half-of-it!) list of U.S. drug related crimes and oddities for the months of July-August 2022:

U.S. Coast Guard/U.S. Naval Forces Central Command photo, 30AUG2022.

Crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Glen Harris (WPC 1144) interdict a fishing vessel suspected of smuggling illegal narcotics in the Gulf of Oman, 30AUG2022.

Wyoming Army National Guard photo by Sergeant Kristina Kranz, 13JUL2022.

While deployed to Tunisia, the Wyoming Army National Guard’s Civil Support Team were asked to identify an unknown substance that was packaged to look like explosives. The substance, stamped TNT, turned out to be cocaine.

Wyoming Army National Guard photo by Sergeant Kristina Kranz, 13JUL2022.

U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP)-Air and Marine Operations reports capturing 121-thousand-667 pounds of cocaine and 33-thousand-226 pounds of marijuana in international waters through the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2022!

The U.S. Navy SEALS are yet again involved with illegal drugs:

CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles Police confirm actress was on narcotics when she crashed and burned her vehicle:

CBP personnel captured 870 pounds of cocaine and 42 pounds of fentanyl hidden inside a tractor-trailer coming from Mexico.

FLORIDA: Narcotics Anonymous meeting results in three people getting killed:

On 23AUG2022, a jury convicted illegals from Mexico and Ecuador of drug smuggling, after a U.S. Coast Guard cutter caught them running drugs from South America to Mexico.

USCG photo by Chief Petty Officer Stephen Lehmann, 30AUG2022.

On 30AUG2022, the crew of USCG cutter Vigorous (WMEC 627) offloaded approximately 22 pounds of cocaine and 1,256 pounds of marijuana, on Coast Guard Base Miami Beach. the drugs were actually captured somewhere in the Eastern Pacific.

ILLINOIS: One of the most corrupt cities in the U.S. is now using tax dollars to openly/publicly treat people for addiction:

MISSOURI: Doctor gets a year in prison, plus he and his wife must pay a fine, after almost ten years of injecting more than 1-thousand trusting patients with a foreign-made drug, and then sending the bill to U.S. taxpayers in order to fund their millionaire lifestyle!

NEW MEXICO: An illegal from Mexico, along with about ten others, is accused of smuggling illegal drugs into the U.S., for the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization (VCFO) transnational criminal enterprise.

NEW YORK: The leader of a so-called candy delivery service gets 22 years in prison for helping to kill the co-founder of video hosting service Vine and the game app HQ Trivia, with illegal drugs.

A man gets only 40 years in prison after killing several people while working for the drugs gang La Organización de Narcotraficantes Unidos (La ONU): “Oscar Valdez-Garcia murdered three people on behalf of a brutal drug cartel. His killings were depraved and despicable. In one instance, Valdez-Garcia and another gunman shot their victim, a double-amputee who was sitting in his wheelchair, 24 times in front of the victim’s daughter.”-Damian Williams, federal attorney

OKLAHOMA: Couple charged with murder after their six years old son dies from fentanyl.

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics claims one of the largest meth seizures in the state’s history:

OREGON: Not only is the city of Portland considered one of the ‘green-ist’, it is now the deadliest drug market in the United States, according to this National Geographic program:

PENNSYLVANIA: CBP personnel captured more than 41 pounds of cocaine that was being smuggled on a plane from Dominican Republic.

PUERTO RICO:

USCG District 7 PADET San Juan photo by Ricardo Castrodad, 05JUL2022.

On 05JUL2022, the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Tezanos offloaded 250 kilograms in seized cocaine on Coast Guard Base San Juan. The drug was captured on 30JUN2022.

USCG District 7 PADET San Juan photo, 03AUG2022.

On 03AUG2022, the USCG captured a small blue boat that was carrying 1-thousand-6-hundred-53 pounds of cocaine. Four Dominicans now face trail in U.S. federal court.

USCG District 7 PADET San Juan photo by Ricardo Castrodad, 16AUG2022.

During the night of 16AUG2022, the USCG captured this boat, near Isabela, with 3-hundred-30 pounds (150kgs) of cocaine aboard. Eight suspected smugglers were turned over to the multi-agency Caribbean Corridor Strike Force (CCFS).

TEXAS: A Dallas lawyer gets five years in federal prison for conspiring to launder drug money. Court documents show that the lawyer thought he was working for a drug smuggler, but in reality it was a sting operation by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency). The sting operation was launched as a result of somebody that knew the lawyer was crooked, saying “He’s a thug, he’s just got a law degree.”

Drug smugglers were caught after they tried to drive their marijuana filled SUV through the Rio Grande.

Drug smugglers were caught with cocaine while trying to cross the Brownsville and Matamoros International Bridge.

Yet another CBP drug bust:

During the last weekend of August, CBP personnel caught numerous people trying to smuggle drugs through the El Paso checkpoint.

WASHINGTON: King County law enforcers report more than 3-hundred overdose deaths involving fentanyl, so far this year:

Drugs the American Way: ILLEGAL MIGRANTS = ILLEGAL DRUGS

U.S.

Biden’s Borderland: Boat people now bringing their pets, just going fishing?

Video September 5, 2022 Hutchins AAron

Welcome to borderland hell under U.S. President Joseph Robinette Biden Junior, incomplete (just the tip of the iceberg) list of videos and reports from the United States Coast Guard, for August 2022:

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) reported they had returned 67 illegals from Cuba to their home country on 15AUG2022. 107 illegals were returned to Cuba on 16AUG2022. 106 illegals and four dogs were sent back to Cuba on 19AUG2022. 203 illegals were returned to Cuba on 20AUG2022. 62 illegals and one dog were sent back to Cuba on 23AUG2022. 88 illegals were returned to Cuba on 25AUG2022.

USCG photo by Petty Officer Third Class Gregory Schell, 26AUG2022.

On 26AUG2022, 90 illegals were loaded onto USCG cutter Raymond Evans, for their return to Cuba. On 30AUG2022, 51 illegals from Haiti were transferred to The Bahamas. On 31AUG2022, 64 illegals, and one dog, were sent back to Cuba.

USCG photo by Petty Officer Third Class Gregory Schell, 31AUG2022.

On 31AUG2022, USCG cutter William Trump was used to send 95 illegals back to Cuba.

USCG District 7 photo, 10AUG2022.

The USCG intercepted this boat full of illegals from Cuba on 10AUG2022, approximately 20 miles north of Cay Sal, Bahamas.

USCG District 7 photo, 31AUG2022.

On 31AUG2022, the USCG captured this boat packed with illegals from Haiti, about 22 miles east of Cuba.

FLORIDA:

USCG District 7 photo, 03AUG2022.

USCG District 7 reports that a “good Samaritan” reported this boat, about seven miles south of Key West and crammed full of illegals from Cuba, on 03AUG2022.

USCG District 7 photo, 04AUG2022.

During the night of 04AUG2022, and about 6 miles east of Government Cut, the USCG intercepted this smuggling boat. Two suspected smugglers detained, 46 illegals sent back to The Bahamas.

USCG District 7 video of intercept of boat crammed full of illegals from Haiti, near Ocean Reef, 06AUG2022:

USCG District 7 photo, 08AUG2022.

Coast Guard Station Islamorada crew members rescue illegals from the water, about six miles off Long Key, 08AUG2022.

USCG District 7 photo, 13AUG2022.

On 13AUG2022, two illegals from Cuba were captured about 30 miles south of Sugarloaf Key, trying to use a surf board to get to Florida.

U.S. Coast Guard District 7 photo, 14AUG2022.

About ten miles south of Key Colony Beach, during the night of 14AUG2022 the USCG intercepted this crowded human smuggling boat. The illegals from Cuba claimed they were just out fishing!

U.S. Coast Guard District 7 photo.

About 26 miles south of Stock Island, the USCG captured illegals from Cuba during the night of 17AUG2022.

USCG District 7 photo, 27AUG2022.

On 27AUG2022, the USCG captured this overloaded boat packed with illegals from Haiti, approximately 85 miles southeast of Islamorada.

USCG photo by Petty Officer Third Class Gregory Schell, 29AUG2022.

On 29AUG2022, the USCG captured this Cuban fishing boat packed with illegals, approximately 2 miles south of Marquesas.

PUERTO RICO:

USCG District 7 PADET photo, 26AUG2022.

The USCG says this boat had 20 illegals from Haiti and Dominican Republic onboard. It was captured northwest of Aguadilla, on 26AUG2022.

USCG District 7 PADET photo, 30AUG2022.

Northwest of Aguadilla, the USCG captured this boat full of illegals from Dominican Republic, 30AUG2022. They were sent home the next day.

TEXAS: On 15AUG2022, while intercepting illegal fishermen from Mexico, the USCG ended up saving them because their illegal fishing boat was sinking:

USCG District 8 photo, 30AUG2022.

On 30AUG2022, the USCG captured this boat along with its illegal fishing crew from Mexico. The USCG claims that on 30AUG2022, they captured a total of three boats being used for illegal fishing, along with 14 people from Mexico.

Biden’s Borderland, July 2022: CUBA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC & HAITI CONTINUE TO FLOOD THE U.S. WITH BOAT PEOPLE!

Technology

Cold War & Beyond: Pole Dancing Hummer?

Image August 30, 2022 Hutchins AAron

Cold War: Approximately 1947 (due to U.S. President Harry Truman’s Truman Doctrine) to 1991 (Operation Desert Storm, collapse of Soviet Union).

The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) first entered service in 1983. The Rome Air Development Center can trace its origins back to 1942, World War Two, when it was first used to test bomb sights for bombers.